J. Edgar (2011) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Watch Now From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video J. Edgar Hoover, powerful head of the F.B.I. for nearly 50 years, looks back on his professional and personal life. Director: a list of 29 titles created 20 Jun 2011 a list of 32 titles created 16 May 2012 a list of 33 titles created 14 Aug 2012 a list of 46 titles created 11 Aug 2013 a list of 39 titles created 21 Feb 2014 Search for " J. Edgar " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 5 wins & 16 nominations.

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Early in his career, Hoover fixated on Communists, anarchists and any other revolutionary taking action against the U.S. government. He slowly builds the agency's reputation, becoming the sole arbiter of who gets hired and fired. One of his hires is Clyde Tolson who is quickly promoted to Assistant Director and would be Hoover's confidant and companion for the rest of Hoover's life. Hoover's memories have him playing a greater role in the many high profile cases the FBI was involved in - the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the arrest of bank robbers like John Dillinger - and also show him to be quite adept at manipulating the various politicians he's worked with over his career, thanks in large part to his secret files. Written by garykmcd The Most Powerful Man in the World Genres: Rated R for brief strong language | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 11 November 2011 (USA) See more » Also Known As: $11,217,324 (USA) (11 November 2011) Gross: Did You Know?

Trivia Charlize Theron was originally cast as Helen Gandy, but dropped out to do Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). Amy Adams was then considered, but Naomi Watts was ultimately cast. See more » Goofs Hoover tells Tolson they're going to Del Mar. But the scene is set in 1934, before the Lindbergh baby is found and before Del Mar actually opened, in 1937. See more » Quotes [first lines] J. Edgar Hoover : Let me tell you something. The SCLC has direct Communist ties. Even great men can be corrupted, can't they? Communism is not a political party. It is a disease. It corrupts the soul, turning men, even the gentlest of men, into vicious evil tyrants. (Phoenix) – See all my reviews The infamous words spoken by Pilate to Jesus of Nazareth come to mind when one ponders the life of John Edgar Hoover. Was he a genius or a tyrant? A patriot or a dictator? A cross dresser or an uptight man with no sex life?

Nobody knows for certain, and director Clint Eastwood does not offer a definitive answer to any of these questions, which is exactly as it should be. Life is rarely cut-and-dried, but moviegoers seem to have forgotten that fact in the face of media that state speculation as fact on a regular basis. I find it not only surprising, but distressing, that a major criticism from those critics who panned the film is the lack of closure on Hoover's private life. Unless they are truly obtuse, they must realize that no film could possibly do such a thing, since his files were destroyed at his own bidding. All is speculation, and a fine speculation it is. Leonardo DiCaprio is superb (as usual) in the title role, never revealing more cards then he chooses to at any given moment. He receives fine support from Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson, Hoover's Second in Command/Rumored Lover, and Naomi Watts as his endlessly loyal private secretary Helen Gandy. At a time when "red fever" ran high, Hoover's relentlessly tightening control on government investigations is shown in flashbacks that only underscore how supreme power can corrupt even the noblest of intentions.

In the end, the film answers none of the questions that seem so important to the very critics that disliked it, but in my humble opinion, a well made film is one that inspires debate or discussion rather than simply hand down a definitive 'this is the way it was' with an imperious gavel. With "J Edgar", Eastwood and his cast have succeeded well. 55 of 66 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Leonardo DiCaprio in Clint Eastwood’s ‘J. Edgar’ - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |A Star Who Isn’t Afraid to Take Risks Search Continue reading the main story Photo Leonardo DiCaprio, about to star as J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood's film, says he isn't afraid to play complicated characters. Credit Kevin Scanlon for The New York Times LOS ANGELES TO transform himself into an aging J. Edgar Hoover , Leonardo DiCaprio sat for hours at a time while makeup artists gave him liver spots, yellow teeth and big, bulbous love handles. He spends a good chunk of Clint Eastwood ’s film “J.

Edgar” that way, sweating and sneering in the unforgiving lighting of F.B.I. headquarters. The part also meant memorizing endless monologues that needed to be delivered with Hoover’s own breakneck cadence. Additionally Mr. DiCaprio, who typically comes accessorized with a supermodel girlfriend in real life, had to wrestle aggressively with a man and then kiss him. Oh, and wear a dress. Faced with a role with demands like that, most superstar actors, even those eager to catch the attention of Oscar voters, would have turned and run. Look unhandsome and unheroic? Too big a risk, even with Mr. Eastwood at the wheel. But Mr. DiCaprio, at least the post- “Titanic” one, has made a career of highly risky choices, and somehow it keeps paying off not only on the awards circuit — he has been nominated for three Academy Awards — but at the box office as well. “When I can’t immediately define the character, and there’s an element of mystery to it and still a lot to be explored, that’s when I say yes,” the 36-year-old Mr.

DiCaprio said in an interview last week on a patio at the Bel Air Hotel here. “I like those kinds of complicated characters. I just do.” Continue reading the main story Hollywood typically doesn’t like that answer. The star system may have become more subtle since the days of Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart, but it’s still a system: American actors are supposed to be more steady persona, less shape shifter. “The apparatus likes to box actors up,” said Brian Grazer, a producer of “J. Edgar,” which is set for release on Wednesday. “Once they become successful in one role, get them into picture after picture where they can do exactly the same thing.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Grazer added: “To resist that, you have to make very hard choices. Most people are too afraid.” It probably helps that Mr. DiCaprio has managed to retain a mystique about his personal life in the celebrity blogger era. Keeping that distance is something he works on. In an interview, for instance, he didn’t pretend to be a friend the way a lot of stars do.

He likes his privacy, but this game also makes his performances more successful; people are more likely to accept him as a larger-than-life character if they don’t have a very clear idea of who he is off screen. Mr. DiCaprio’s choices may be unusual, but he does have his own version of sticking with what works. The characters are mostly tortured, unsympathetic, larger-than-life guys created with the help of a tiny club of A-list directors, most notably Martin Scorsese . A urine-collecting Howard Hughes in “The Aviator.” A Zimbabwean smuggler in “Blood Diamond.” A mental patient in “Shutter Island.” A dream extractor in “Inception.” Photo Leonardo DiCaprio, as the longtime F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover, with Clint Eastwood, the director. Credit Keith Bernstein/Warner Brothers Pictures “Leonardo could make a lot of money making mechanical genre pictures, but he wants to be challenged,” Mr. Eastwood said by telephone. “And it’s much more of a challenge to play someone who doesn’t have the slightest thing in common with you.” Next on Mr.

DiCaprio’s docket is the title role in Baz Luhrmann ’s remake of “The Great Gatsby,” and he’s ready to play Frank Sinatra in another Scorsese biopic. “That is in Mr. Scorsese’s hands,” he said of a potential Sinatra film, pausing to pop a wedge of watermelon into his mouth and pour himself another cup of coffee. “I’m always incredibly game for anything that he decides to do.” “J. Edgar” fits snugly into this canon. The best biopics offer a portrait of person, warts and all, and invite viewers to make their own judgments about him, and Mr. Eastwood’s film strives to do just that. Hoover is depicted as a brilliant patriot who invented modern forensics and stopped at nothing to protect America through eight presidents and three wars. But the omnipowerful F.B.I. director was an impediment, to put it mildly, to the civil rights movement and worked as hard to distort the truth as he did to collect it (and file it away) to secure his power. All of that is more or less fact. The treacherous part of “J.

Edgar,” written by Dustin Lance Black, an Oscar winner for his “Milk” screenplay, involves the gray. Was Hoover homosexual? Nobody knows for sure. He certainly had an unusually close relationship with his F.B.I. colleague Clyde Tolson, played in the film by Armie Hammer (“The Social Network”). Even less clear is whether Hoover liked to wear women’s clothes, but Mr. Eastwood and Mr. DiCaprio decided to retain Mr. Black’s artful nod to the rumor. “Obviously there’s a love story here,” Mr. Eastwood said. “Whether it is a gay love story or something else — well, the audience can interpret it. My intention was to show two men who really love each other, and beyond that it’s none of my business.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. DiCaprio’s risk taking is cheered by the Hollywood contingent that loves serious films, raising him to the level of deity for his willingness to make the kind of drama that is an endangered species at major studios these days. But a more business-minded crowd — agents, studio chiefs — says taking on all of these biopics is a mistake. The worry is that at some point Mr.

DiCaprio will become uninteresting to audiences if he doesn’t pepper his road with a wider variety of roles. Jeanine Basinger, chairwoman of the film studies department at Wesleyan University, calls this “the Paul Muni problem.” Muni was perhaps the top actor at Warner Brothers in the 1930s, starring as powerful characters in films like “Scarface.” He also had a penchant for biographical parts, winning an Oscar for “The Story of Louis Pasteur” (1936). But he developed a type of obsession with historical roles and faded. Does Mr. DiCaprio worry about boxing himself in by trying to stay out of the box? If he does, he’s not admitting it. “Never. No. I don’t,” he said quickly. Photo Leonardo DiCaprio, with Judi Dench, who plays his mother in "J. Edgar." Credit Keith Bernstein/Warner Brothers Pictures Although Ms. Basinger raises the point, she’s not terribly worried herself. Few other actors have as much raw talent as Mr.

DiCaprio, she noted, and the fact that he has been able to move from the 1980s sitcom “Growing Pains” to “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” to “Titanic” to “The Departed” bodes well for his future growth. “He is always very strongly present as DiCaprio, yet he can really make us believe that he is another person,” Ms. Basinger said. “That’s incredible talent.” Mr. DiCaprio’s Oscar nominations have been for “Gilbert Grape,” which he made when he was 19 years old, “The Aviator” and “Blood Diamond.” Veteran awards strategists (not working on behalf of “J. Edgar”) think he is a shoo-in for a nomination this year, along with George Clooney for his role in “The Descendants,” Alexander Payne’s look at a man trying to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife falls into a coma. But it’s still too soon to tell whether another Academy Awards ceremony is in Mr. DiCaprio’s immediate future. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to.

Sign Up Privacy Policy Will “J. Edgar” be a hit? Also unclear. But Mr. DiCaprio does have an insurance policy in that ever pesky “Titanic,” which will be rereleased in April in 3-D. If a 3-D conversion of “The Lion King” can generate almost $100 million, as it did for Disney last month, “Titanic” should easily make a major box office splash. Mr. DiCaprio said he hadn’t thought about it much and had come to terms with being continually associated with the dopey Jack Dawson. “I’m not haunted by it, but it certainly follows me,” he said. “I’ve been to the Amazon, and people with no clothes on, and I’m not exaggerating, know about that film. I’ve accepted it.” In person Mr. DiCaprio comes across exactly as you suspect he would. He was tired, arriving at a morning interview the day after flying back to Los Angeles from Australia, where he had been filming “The Great Gatsby.” But he was also playful — those blue eyes may have been jet lagged but they still managed to twinkle — and exceedingly polite.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Bear with me while I come to my senses,” he said with a smile, adjusting the blue baseball cap he was wearing (backward, naturally). The next minute he was asking whether Sian Grigg, his Hoover makeup artist, could be given recognition in this article. “I’m sure she had multiple panic attacks trying to get me ready,” he said. “I could be quite squirmy.” He lit up when talking about movies and people that have influenced him, particularly Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard,” which he said he discussed with Mr. Eastwood during the making of “J. Edgar.” They wanted to emulate how that 1950 film handled voice-over narration. But Mr. DiCaprio also seemed to go on auto pilot from time to time, answering in the way that actors tend to answer. (Lucky to be employed this, trusting your gut that.) And personal questions are not appreciated. Just why is it that he dates all of those supermodels? Video embed He threw a look — um, duh, wouldn’t you if you could? — and then frosted over.

“I’ve never really talked about that kind of stuff, and, very respectfully, I’m going to keep it that way,” he said. He’d rather stick to “J. Edgar,” particularly that prosthetic makeup, which he found frustrating and claustrophobic. He estimates that he spent about two weeks of the 39-day shoot as “old Hoover,” which required sitting up to five hours a day in Ms. Grigg’s makeup chair. “To stay in character and to fight the urge not to rip it off at times and to not feel trapped inside it is extremely hard,” he said. “It’s like you’ve been slathered in honey and wrapped in a giant duvet.” (Told by a reporter that he had just created a new fantasy for his crazier female fans, he laughed.) Mr. DiCaprio did months of research to be able to inhabit Hoover fully. He flew to Washington with Mr. Black to tour the Justice Department and one of Hoover’s former homes. Mr. DiCaprio also met with Cartha D. DeLoach , one of the only people still alive who worked closely with Hoover, and taped their hours-long conversation.

(Hoover would have been proud.) “I wanted him to tell me how he walked, how he talked, what his hands looked like, what his desk looked like, what was above his desk,” Mr. DiCaprio said. “The research of these roles is half the fun and half the challenge — maybe more,” he added. “It’s what makes it exciting to me.” Mr. Black recalled that Mr. DiCaprio dug up obscure film footage of a young Hoover giving speeches and read through transcripts of his Congressional testimony. “I had gone with a more redacted version of those, leaving out some of the more flowery, Hoovery language,” Mr. Black said. “Hoover liked to weave a lot of allusions of slimy, slippery animals into his speeches at that time. Leo loved it. He said, ‘Come on, we’ve got to use this stuff.’ ” (Mr. Black also remembers Mr. DiCaprio’s fondness for German chocolate cupcakes. “Some of those pounds on later Hoover were not prosthetic,” he said. “I’ll say it.

Leo got a little fat.”) Advertisement Continue reading the main story DiCapriophiles will be quick to note that he does have some important things in common with Hoover, at least on the surface. Hoover, for instance, was very close to his mother, played by Judi Dench in the film. Mr. DiCaprio has a tight relationship with his own mom, Irmelin DiCaprio, who raised him in the Loz Feliz section of Los Angeles and drove him around to auditions. “The difference is that Hoover’s mother told him what to do, and my mother listened to me,” he said. “My mother was incredibly supportive. She wasn’t a stage mom and really didn’t care either way if I was an actor. She just listened to this arrogant little kid saying he wanted to be an actor and didn’t laugh in my face.” Hoover was also a man who lost himself in his own ego and his need to be the center of attention — something that Mr. DiCaprio, as a student of Hollywood, has to see as a potential fate for himself if he’s not careful. (Hello, “Sunset Boulevard.”) Then again, maybe not. “It’s not something that I actively worry about,” he said.

“I’m fully aware that every career is fleeting in some respects.” Correction: November 6, 2011 A cover profile this weekend about the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who stars in the coming film “J. Edgar,” misidentifies the film for which he received his third Oscar nomination. It is “Blood Diamond,” not “The Departed.” (His other two were for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and “The Aviator.”) A version of this article appears in print on November 6, 2011, on Page AR1 of the New York edition with the headline: Risk Taker. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Watch: Trailer For Clint Eastwood’s ‘J. Edgar’ Starring Leonardo DiCaprio | IndieWire Watch: Trailer For Clint Eastwood’s ‘J. Edgar’ Starring Leonardo DiCaprio Watch: Trailer For Clint Eastwood's 'J.

Edgar' Starring Leonardo DiCaprio Sep 19, 2011 11:12 am Share This Article Talk One of the key question marks in this year’s Oscar season, one conspicuously absent from our most anticipated post-fall film festival picks feature published this morning, is Clint Eastwood‘s “ J. Edgar ,” his decades-spanning drama about the controversial head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. The project stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular subject, and while in most people’s minds Eastwood + DiCaprio = Oscars, that seems to be a rather superficial response. Almost everything made after 2004’s Best Picture-winning “Million Dollar Baby” has been either patchy (“Invictus“), uneven (“Flags Of Our Fathers“) a mild effort (“Gran Torino“) or downright dull (“Hereafter“) — this writer would submit that “Changeling” is his best work since then. Then again that period accounts for eleven Oscar nominations (“Letters from Iwo Jima” scoring four including Best Picture and Best Director nods), but only two wins (duel sound editing awards for his two WWII films ).

So, ok, we shouldn’t count out Eastwood, but we’re still looking to be won over. So the trailer? Well, right now all that’s available is a bad bootleg from Access Hollywood so we won’t cast any judgement for now. Watch it for yourself below and once Apple or Yahoo have a real embed, we’ll switch things out. A proper embed is available for you to look at below. “J. Edgar” is set to screen on November 9 in limited release and then quickly goes wide on November 11. The picture will make its debut at the AFI Film Festival just a few days prior on November 3. Written by “Milk” screenwriter Dustin Lance Black the intriguing ensemble cast includes, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Ed Westwick, Damon Herriman, Judi Dench, Ken Howard, Jeffrey Donovan and Stephen Root. Ken Howard Joins The Cast Of Clint Eastwood’s ‘J. Edgar’ Starring Leonardo DiCaprio | IndieWire Ken Howard Joins The Cast Of Clint Eastwood’s ‘J. Edgar’ Starring Leonardo DiCaprio Ken Howard Joins The Cast Of Clint Eastwood's 'J.

Edgar' Starring Leonardo DiCaprio Jan 25, 2011 2:11 am Share This Article Talk Veteran thespian and Screen Actor’s Guild president Ken Howard has joined the cast of Clint Eastwood‘s upcoming J. Edgar Hoover biopic, which will see Leonardo DiCaprio take on the role of the infamous FBI director, in the Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black-scripted tale. Howard will play lawyer and jurist Harlan F. Stone, who served as the 52nd Attorney General of the United States, a role which saw him appoint Hoover as head of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation, before going on to became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and then stepping up to be only the 12th Chief Justice of the court. It’s somewhat of a leftfield casting choice though, as Howard isn’t exactly the most prolific actor, although Tony Gilroy‘s “Michael Clayton,” the latest “Rambo” sequel and HBO‘s “Grey Gardens” (for which he won an Emmy for in ’09) number among his most recent performances.

Among those in the impressive supporting cast are “The Social Network” breakout star Armie Hammer playing Hoover’s assistant/closeted lover Clyde Tolson; Josh Lucas as famed aviator Charles Lindbergh; Ed Westwick as Agent Smith, an operative gifted with writing skills; Damon Herriman as Bruno Hauptmann, the man convicted of kidnapping and killing the Lindbergh baby; and Judi Dench in an unnamed role , while Charlize Theron recently passed on the role of Helen Gandy, a Justice Department file clerk who ended up being Hoover’s personal secretary. Last we heard , Naomi Watts and Amy Adams were being eyed by Eastwood as replacements for Theron with the final decision surely not too far way, as shooting is set to begin next month. And with Eastwood’s speedy production methodology, we’re expecting the film to finish in time for a fall 2011 release. [ Variety ] Clint Eastwood's 'J. Edgar' Adds Ken Howard to the Cast Clint Eastwood’s ‘J.

Edgar’ Adds Ken Howard to the Cast Written by Danny King on January 24, 2011 Ken Howard, president of the Screen Actors Guild since September 2009, has landed the role of U.S. Attorney General Harlan F. Stone in Clint Eastwood‘s J. Edgar. The film, working from a Dustin Lance Black (Milk) script, will stay consistent with Eastwood‘s recent projects by being produced by Imagine and Malpaso. Shooting is scheduled to begin in February. [ The Hollywood Reporter ] Recently, Howard has been seen in Grey Gardens, for which he won an Emmy, and he will soon be appearing on 30 Rock. Eastwood‘s film will also star Leonardo DiCaprio (in the title role), Armie Hammer (The Social Network), Judi Dench, and Josh Lucas. What do you think of the cast Eastwood has assembled?

Films: Clint Eastwood | The List Films: Clint Eastwood Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney UK release: 2 December 2016 The story of pilot Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger (Hanks), who became an unassuming hero in 2009 after successfully ditching a US Airways Airbus 320 on the Hudson River. Eckhart gives strong support as co-pilot Jeff Skiles but the film belongs to Hanks, whose understated performance, with the skilful re-enactments of the… Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Jake McDorman UK release: 16 January 2015 Eastwood, noted for his kinship with the common soldier, is the ideal director for this true-life drama based on the autobiography of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (Cooper). Cooper continues to be impressive but the film unravels when it shows Kyle's home life, failing to engage with either marital or wider political issues.

Cast: Christopher Walken, Francesca Eastwood, Freya Tingley UK release: 20 June 2014 Clint Eastwood directs a film version of the hit Broadway musical, which traces the career of the Four Seasons. Cast: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, John Goodman UK release: 30 November 2012 After retiring from acting, Eastwood returns to star in this drama about an ailing baseball scout taking his daughter along on a final recruiting trip. Written by: Dustin Lance Black Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas, Judi Dench UK release: 20 January 2012 Biopic of former head of the FBI, J Edgar Hoover, touching on his alleged homosexuality and cross-dressing tendencies as well as a sentimental trip through the defining moments of his career. This subject matter is handled sensitively, and the film is well acted (especially by DiCaprio in the title role) but overall feels… Fact-Checking Clint Eastwood's 'J. Edgar' Biopic : NPR Fact-Checking Clint Eastwood's 'J. Edgar' Biopic Embed Embed Fact-Checking Clint Eastwood's 'J.

Edgar' Biopic Fact-Checking Clint Eastwood's 'J. Edgar' Biopic Embed Embed Heard on All Things Considered All Things Considered host Robert Siegel offers some nonfiction scrutiny of Clint Eastwood's latest movie, J. Edgar. Siegel talks with Beverly Gage, a professor of U.S. history at Yale, who is working on a biography of Hoover. This is the second installment of our fact-check film series. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel. And this week, we are subjecting some current biopics to a little truth squadding. Considering how deep an impression a movie about a historical figure can be - think of George C. Scott and "Patton," for example - we thought some nonfiction refreshers might be helpful. These days, a very famous Washington figure is being shown to millions of people the way screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has written him and the way Leonardo DiCaprio has played him. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "J. EDGAR") LEONARDO DICAPRIO: (as J.

Edgar Hoover) You still fancy facial hair, Agent Stokes? JOSH STAMBERG: (as Agent Stokes) The ladies appreciate it. DICAPRIO: (as J. Edgar Hoover) Hmm. And I suppose the ladies' opinions are more important than the bureau's? STAMBERG: (as Agent Stokes) No, sir. DICAPRIO: (as J. Edgar Hoover) Perhaps you are better suited for the police force than the Bureau of Investigations. STAMBERG: (as Agent Stokes) I've been with the department of the bureau for seven years, Edgar. Almost as long as you. DICAPRIO: (as J. Edgar Hoover) No. You were with the old bureau seven years, and that bureau is now gone, sir. And so are you. SIEGEL: That's DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI cashiering the mustachioed Agent Stokes played by Josh Stamberg. And joining us for a little nonfiction scrutiny of Clint Eastwood's new movie, "J. Edgar," is Beverly Gage. She's a professor of U.S. history at Yale and is working on a biography of Hoover.

Welcome to the program. BEVERLY GAGE: Thanks, Robert. SIEGEL: We're not interested so much in the odd factual error here as in the general truthfulness of the portrayal. Does this movie present a J. Edgar Hoover whom you understand as J. Edgar Hoover? GAGE: The movie fictionalizes a lot of scenes as any Hollywood film about a historical figure does, but I think, overall, it actually does a pretty good job of conveying the big picture of Hoover's life, some of the biggest themes and the biggest questions we still have about Hoover. SIEGEL: Well, first, professionally, we heard him being the disciplinarian and the stickler at the bureau. Does it give a balanced picture of his leadership of the FBI? GAGE: I think it's hard for people today who have over the past 40 years sort of seen Hoover largely as a villain to remember that he did come to office, in fact, as a reformer.

He came in to clean it up, to professionalize it, and a little bit we heard in the clip about how the bureau was going to be different from the sort of corrupt low-brow police was really Hoover's identifying factor for many, many years of his early career. SIEGEL: Now, what's central to this treatment of Hoover's life is his relationship with Clyde Tolson, his associate director at the bureau, his inseparable friend, next-door neighbor, daily dinner companion. Here's a clip from the scene in which Hoover offers Tolson the number two job at the bureau, and Tolson, played by Armie Hammer, responds. (SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "J. EDGAR") ARMIE HAMMER: (as Clyde Tolson) I'm not much for the spotlight, Edgar. DICAPRIO: (as J. Edgar Hoover) I need you, Clyde. Do you understand? I need you. HAMMER: (as Clyde Tolson) On one condition: Good day or bad, whether we agree or disagree, we never miss a lunch or a dinner together. DICAPRIO: (as J. Edgar Hoover) Well, I would have it no other way.

SIEGEL: Now, the screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black, is openly gay. He's the man who wrote "Milk," and he treats the Hoover-Tolson relationship as unquestionably romantic and physical, at least so far as kissing and embracing go. Is "J. Edgar" the movie stating the obvious here or stretching the evidence? GAGE: Well, this is one of these very, very tantalizing historical relationships that people have been trying to get to the bottom of for decades. It's certainly true, as the movie says, that they had this very intense social partnership for 40 years, which is to say they did have dinner together. They went to nightclubs together. They were treated more or less as a couple, almost as a married couple. What we don't really know is what went on between the two of them when they were having private conversations. So most of the movie, when we see these scenes around the breakfast table or these sort of intimate conversations in other places, that's all kind of fictionalized based on what we do know, which is that there was this very deep partnership.

And it doesn't take a huge leap of the imagination to look at two men who really didn't date women, who spent most of their lives together and imagine that they might have been in love with each other. SIEGEL: There's a moment in the movie after J. Edgar Hoover's mother dies when he puts on a dress. GAGE: Right. That scene in the movie - so Hoover's mother dies, and he's traumatized by this. He puts on her dress and her necklace sort of in homage to her but also as a symbol of his tortured sexuality. That is the movie's one gesture toward one of the most famous sort of pseudo facts about J. Edgar Hoover, which is this idea that he was a cross-dresser. And again, the evidence is rather tantalizing.

Most of it was laid out in a biography in the early 1990s by a British journalist named Anthony Summers, and he found a few people who said that they had either seen pictures of Hoover wearing a dress in the 1940s or that in one case a woman claimed that she had actually witnessed Hoover wearing a woman's clothes at the Plaza Hotel with Roy Cohn and an industrialist named Lewis Rosenstiel. So we have no hard evidence on this in the sense that if those pictures ever existed, nobody has ever seen them or could produce them now, but there are these little bits and pieces of gossip out there that are quite suggestive about his private life. SIEGEL: There's a twist to the narrative in "J. Edgar," which is that much of what we're hearing, the way in which Hoover is presenting his life in the FBI is through him dictating a highly embroidered memoir of his career, which Clyde Tolson puts the light to it much later in the movie. First of all, did Hoover actually set down an account of his career, and did he embroider it greatly when he did?

GAGE: He didn't ever have the sort of formal situation that you see in the movie where he was dictating a memoir to a series of young agents, and that that is the official record of the FBI. But what we was very famous for and very successful at was having an enormous propaganda division at the FBI that both glorified the FBI, sent out Hoover's own kind of political messages about communists, about personal morality. And that also glorified J. Edgar Hoover, and that was one of his really singular accomplishments at the FBI. SIEGEL: Hoover is a person who we saw in some newsreels and films. You've been immersed in the story of his life. Does Leonardo DiCaprio get it as far as you're concerned? When you see him, do you think, yeah, pretty good? GAGE: Well, one of Hoover's most famous characteristics, which I think that DiCaprio really does capture, is that he was known as a very fast talker. And certainly, in his later life, he would go on, really, for hours.

You would come in to ask him a question, and if he wanted to tell you stories from the good old days of John Dillinger and Eleanor Roosevelt at extraordinary length, he would go ahead and do it. One of the sources of speculation is, you know, why did he speak so fast? Some people say that it was because he had a stutter as a young man, and this is what they suggest in the film, and that he worked to get over that. But at any rate, his nickname was Speed, and he was a very serious, efficient, fast-talking young man, and I really do think that DiCaprio captures that. SIEGEL: Professor Gage, thank you very much for talking with us. GAGE: Thanks, Robert. SIEGEL: That's Beverly Gage, professor of U.S. history at Yale University. We were talking about the movie "J. Edgar" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) SIEGEL: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information.

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Question: Who starred in the title role of Clint Eastwood's 2011 film J Edgar?
Answer: Leonardo DiCaprio